


Stack the Deck

by myystic (neoinean)



Category: White Collar
Genre: AU, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-22
Updated: 2009-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 16:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoinean/pseuds/myystic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-series AU. This is not what happened to Kate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stack the Deck

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration courtesy of the _White Collar_ kink meme on LiveJournal. Original prompt: "Write me something wrong. So, so WRONG." Also, this fic was first posted anonymously to said kink meme on 11/7/09, before _Freefall_ aired. Original summary: _Probably not_ what happened to Kate.

Peter grimaced. At the exceptionally bad coffee, not at the reason he was sitting here drinking it. The reason he was drinking exceptionally bad coffee should have had him smiling. Cheering even. Bouncing up and down in his seat in condign glee.

She'd said yes. It had taken almost four weeks of near-constant needling, pestering, bribing, and -- occasionally -- some tactful applications of blackmail, but she'd said yes.

_Hallelujah_.

She'd need time, she'd said as well, into her own mug of exceptionally bad coffee. He was paying though, so she kept her own faces to a minimum. He'd said that he was taking her out for drinks. She'd acquiesced on the condition that it not be a place either of them would be recognized.

As if he were ever so -- incautious.

But she'd said yes; to the tabletop, to the sugar dispenser, to the exceptionally bad coffee in her mug, and gave either his tie or his onyx tie-tack a simple but effective explanation for each and every single day she'd need to set things up. Her list of demands on top of that, though... Well, that had almost been enough to make him reconsider.

There were a lot of things that almost made him reconsider. In the end though they didn't matter. Getting what he wanted? Hell, getting what _they needed_\--

That mattered.

And more than his checking account, apparently. He was almost surprised to find how out not-surprised he was.

And so she'd need a month and change, and false papers, and airline tickets, and a gold card in someone else's name -- not hers, not his -- that he would be responsible for. She could handle the finer points, she'd said; the little details that he could read but couldn't write. A musician but not a composer (an investigator but not a con).

Though, he _had_ always been a quick study.

Or not, and no, because he was grimacing even as she'd said yes, even as she made him run through it all again (and read everything twice before you sign it). Made him restate and record (un)officially his promises.

Why did finally getting what he wanted suddenly feel like losing everything he already had?

But Kate would disappear. On his word, on his dime. And in return he would take care of Neal, when Neal inevitably chased after her. And she would keep him hooked, keep him dangling, keep herself (and all her promises) just out of reach while he kept Neal honest, kept Neal occupied, kept Neal in his fucking (fucking) back pocket until the last of the statutes were clear.

Thirty million, he had guessed, back when Neal's life had been his hobby (it was _still_ his hobby, if he was honest with himself -- why else would he be here?). And now almost four years in the pen -- another four and, if Neal was careful (he was _Neal_), he could walk with maybe half of that.

Four years was a long time in the law enforcement business. It was practically eternity (just ask Neal, barely five months left to go). And Neal was good, but Neal was _fun_, and Peter was sick and tired of having one without the other.

Four years was an eternity to be responsible for a slippery felon with a Robin Hood complex and too big a heart for the work he did. But, it was also a beautiful window in which to build a career.

And maybe four years was long enough for Neal to learn to forgive ~~her~~ ~~them~~ \--

Him.

 

-_fin_-


End file.
